“If my wife divorces me, her children will not inherit my property dead or alive”

The petitioner filed for the dissolution of their 11-year-old marriage on the grounds of constant battering.

“My children will never inherit my property either dead or alive if my wife divorces me,’’ a 39-year-old fruit seller, Amidu Olalere, told an Igando Customary Court on Friday in Lagos.

Olalere said this while responding to a divorce suit filed by his wife, Adeola, for the dissolution of their 11-year-old marriage on the grounds of constant battering.

Olalere, who accused his wife of starving him of sex, said: “My wife is always denying me sex, and whenever I reported her to her mother, she will ask me how many times will I be having sex with her daughter.

“She would ask me not to kill her with sex, instead of admonishing her.”

The respondent said his wife moved out from his house with the children in January to stay with her mother and that whenever he called her, her mother would be raining curses on him.

“There was a day my mother-in-law cursed me, and I also cursed her that thunder will kill her.”

He said his mother-in-law was always accusing him of planning to use her daughter for ritual.

On whether the children are his, Olalere said that he doubted the paternity of the four children.

“Whenever my wife and I quarrel, she tells me that the children are not mine; so, I am confused if truly thechildren belong to me,’’ he said.

The husband, however, pleaded with the court not to dissolve the marriage, saying in spite of her shortcomings he still loves her.

Earlier, the wife had accused her husband beating her on the slightest provocation.

“He once beat me to the point that I fainted and was hospitalised for four days.

“When I was on admission, none of his family members came to see me since we all live in a family house and my husband also refused to pay the bills,” she said, urging the court to terminate the marriage.

“I am no longer interested in the marriage.”

After listening to their submissions, the President of the court, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, adjourned the case until July 25 for judgment.